Best of enemies: Hamilton and Rosberg will be on the front row (Image: Dan Istitene)

The world champion continue the initiative created from his Canada win two weeks ago.

“Very good but strange,” said Merc overlord Niki Lauda.

“First and second, you can’t do a better job.

“It was very close but at the end they both ended up in the gravel.

Rosberg apologised: “Sorry about that guys, what’s my position?”

And then he got the bad news.

“I’m not sure what happened, I went on the astro-turf in the second to last corner and maybe it is a little bit wet or I overdid it and lost it into the last corner,” said Rosberg.

“Lewis was two-tenths ahead and I was two-tenths up with two corners to go and knew I had to go for it - and I just overdid it.

“This track is challenging and you have to attack to set a good lap time. It’s easy to make a mistake.”

History beckoned for Hamilton – moving to third on the all-time list, equal with Sebastian Vettel’s on 45.

In with a shout: Vettel will line up third (Image: REUTERS/Laszlo Balogh)

And that leaves only legends Ayrton Senna and Michael Schumacher ahead of him in the record books he claims to care so little for.

Hamilton said: “All I care about is championships.”

Vettel, third again, joked after being outgunned yet again the music he listens to “Help” by the Beatles.

The dramatic turnaround came for Hamilton after he had struggled all weekend, barely making the cut from Q1 by a third of a second down in 13th.

Unusually he had not headed a single session until it mattered in qualifying.

His early problems were multiplied when he was accidentally blocked by former teammate Jenson Button.

And Button had another day to forget as he failed to make it out of the first qualifying session while teammate Fernando Alonso did thanks to updates on his McLaren.

And with a 25-place grid penalty AND a 10 second drive through penalty to take thanks to a host of Honda changes his season of struggle continued.

The Japanese car giant changed the turbo, both heat and brake energy recovery systems and the engine itself.

“It’s a real test of character,” admitted Button of the slippery conditions in which he was briefly, surprisingly, fastest.

Afterwards he Tweeted a picture of the time sheets after just five minutes when he was top.

“Those conditions are always good fun,” he said.

“It’s not just about the car and the performances it gives, you have to find your own feet own way around. I really enjoyed it,

“I was P1, p2, p6, when everyone finds their feet and the circuit dries its what’s in the car.

“But I’ve got the penalty so hopefully we will have a better weekend at Silverstone.

And the misery wasn’t confined to McLaren as former champion Kimi Raikkonen failed to make it out of the first qualifying session yet again.

Misery: It was another day to forget for Button and McLaren (Image: Charles Coates)

He stormed out of the team garage and into the motorhome without speaking to waiting media.

Ferrari said there had been nothing wrong with his car.

Asked what the reason for his 18th qualifying position, even if it is to improve at least four places thanks to other people’s penalties he said: “I really don’t know. Something obviously, end result managed to get knocked out of Q2.

“I dunno. It’s a bad day and qualifying is not going to help for tomorrow.”

Will Stevens was caught up in a dice with two rivals and delayed when the track was at its quickest at the end of the session.

He starts 20th, which will probably become 16th, after all the punishments are collated.